TVA Moves Fast to Restore Power After Storms in Northeast Mississippi

COLUMBUS, Miss. ? Tennessee Valley Authority electric crews moved quickly to restore power and rebuild infrastructure after a series of violent storms marched across Northeast Mississippi last week.

TVA had electricity restored to local power companies less than 20 hours after the storms hit Thursday, and completed infrastructure repairs by Sunday night.

“We quickly assessed the damage and came up with a plan to restore power,” said Tracy Flippo, TVA vice president of Transmission & Operation Maintenance. “Crews worked through the night on Thursday and we worked all weekend long, because we know people need power and we want to deliver it safely.”

The storm, following almost an identical path as a storm on the same date two years ago, caused extensive damage to three TVA transmission lines and 18 structures near Macon, Miss. It also resulted in seven lost connection points to local power companies.

“Our priority in any restoration effort is to ensure that the local power companies have power to get to their customers,” Flippo said. “In this case, we had three utilities, 4-County Electric Power Association, East Mississippi Electric Power Association and Macon Electric Department, that had lost some service points and we went to work right away.”

4-County EPA CEO & general manager Joe Cade said, “We were busy making repairs to our system, but the power would not come back until TVA had reconnected transmission lines to us. Their quick response enabled us to get our system back on-line and our members’ power restored quickly. Their efforts are much appreciated.”

Flippo said cooperation and communication between TVA and the local power companies allows for rapid response in the event of extensive damage.

“We appreciate the local power companies who not only were working on their own restoration efforts, but also on the phone with us rerouting power so we could do our job safely,” he said.

TVA construction and electric crews from other parts of the TVA service territory were called upon to assist in restoration efforts.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power distributors serving 9 million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation.